Ozil may lead Sanchez and Oxlade-Chamberlain out of Arsenal after latest humiliation. Will Wenger be following them?

German likely to reject latest contract offer

Oxlade-Chamberlain also keen to leave club

The crisis enveloping Arsenal is set to deepen, with Mesut Özil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain ready to follow Alexis Sánchez out of the club this summer.

The Daily Telegraph understands that Özil has not responded to Arsenal’s latest contract offer of more than £200,000 a week, with friends in Germany claiming he wants to quit the Emirates.

The 10-2 aggregate defeat by Bayern Munich in the Champions League has increased calls for Arsène Wenger to go when his contract expires at the end of the season, but the future of the club’s manager is not the only problem facing owner Stan Kroenke and chief executive Ivan Gazidis.

Arsenal had been more hopeful of convincing Özil to sign a new deal rather than Sánchez, but it is believed that Wenger is coming round to the idea that both players may need to be sold if he stays on.

Even though Sánchez and Özil will have only one year remaining on their contracts at the end of this season, Wenger has always insisted that it will be Arsenal’s decision whether or not they start the next campaign at the club.

Any realistic hope of keeping Sánchez appeared to evaporate when the Chile international had walked off the training pitch and was involved in a heated argument with Laurent Koscielny and Aaron Ramsey before being dropped to the substitutes’ bench for last Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Liverpool.

It seems Arsenal and Wenger are now losing hope over Özil, who has also been heavily criticised for his performances this season.

The German missed the defeat by Liverpool through illness, and was drafted in as a late substitute for the 5-1 thrashing by Bayern at the Emirates on Tuesday after the withdrawals of Danny Welbeck and Alex Iwobi. But there have been suggestions around the club that the recent absence of Özil has not solely been down to illness or injury.

Another Arsenal player with only 12 months remaining on his contract at the end of this season is Oxlade-Chamberlain, who earnt praise for his display on Tuesday.

Having become disillusioned with his contract situation and lack of playing time, Oxlade-Chamberlain looks certain to quit the club.

Sources close to the 23-year-old have suggested he needs a fresh challenge, with Arsenal yet to offer him a new deal. It now appears that there is little chance Oxlade-Chamberlain will sign a new contract, even if one is offered to him.

There will be no shortage of clubs interested in signing the midfielder, including Liverpool, and it seems highly unlikely that Arsenal will allow him to go into the final year of his contract without selling him. Oxlade-Chamberlain has been unfortunate in often being one of the young players who makes way. He is frequently substituted by Wenger and rarely plays in the same position from week to week.

Doubts remain over the future of Jack Wilshere, whose contract expires next year and who is on loan at Bournemouth, while goalkeeper David Ospina is looking for a new club and Petr Cech was frustrated at being left on the bench in the Champions League.

Wenger has another big decision to make over his keepers ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final against Lincoln City, as Ospina has played in all the FA Cup games to date, but Cech moved to Arsenal to win trophies, and the competition represents the club’s only realistic chance of silverware.

Despite doubts over the future of individuals and tension in the squad, Theo Walcott has called on Arsenal’s players to stop their in-fighting and to channel their aggression into helping to ease the pressure on Wenger.

Asked about the training ground incident involving Sánchez, Walcott said: “There are certain things that happen at training grounds. I’m sure it happens at every other club, most of the time, really.

“You don’t see it often at Arsenal. Things have happened. They need to stay in the dressing room and the players and staff need to sort it out. We are in it together here. We can’t be fighting each other.”

On Wenger, Walcott added: “The manager has been taking a lot of flak in recent weeks and us players have been accepting it, but we can’t. We need to take the pressure off the manager, and that will happen by performances.”

‘The manager has been taking a lot of flak ... but we need to take the pressure off him’